#124: How to Get Back on Track When Life Throws You Off

Has life ever knocked you out of a long-time routine and you weren't sure how to get back on track?

In this episode, Jeff shares his recent struggles with maintaining his long-time  fitness routine after a a few unexpected life challenges. We discuss the difficulty of consistency, highlighting the importance of empathy, mindset, and the concept of upper and lower limits to build and maintain habits. We offer encouragement for those starting new endeavors and share practical advice to break down big goals into manageable steps. Tune in for insights on overcoming setbacks and the power of persistence!

ACTION STEP FROM THIS EPISODE
Consider where you've fallen off of a valuable routine and start with the simplest possible task to rebuild a habit or routine around that, e.g. start with a few pushups a day or walking around the block.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• 00:15 The Struggle of Starting and Stopping
• 02:50 The Power of Starting Simple
• 04:21 The Role of Mindset in Achieving Goals
• 05:26 The Power of Empathy and Understanding
• 07:25 The Importance of Consistency and Momentum
• 09:17 The Power of Small Steps and Lower Limits

RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE

• For more on Upper and Lower Limits, check out Episode 85.
• For more info on mastering the fundamentals of habits, check out our 7 Day Habit course email us at hello@habitmasters.com if you're planning to take the course and we'll hook you up with a sweet discount code.

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Transcript

Jeff Corrigan: 0:00

Welcome Back to Habitmasters, the best place in the world to know.

Sheldon Mills: 0:07

No, no, keep going. I like this.

Jeff Corrigan: 0:09

The best podcast in the world to help you bridge the gap between where you've been and where you want to be.

Sheldon Mills: 0:14

Yeah. Jeff's got a story he's going to start with, but this is for everybody. And I mean everybody who has started and stopped and been struggling to accomplish those goals and those things we want to do and become. And it's just like, that's life. And it's difficult sometimes. And it's hard. And we have obstacles that get in the way. Like this is for you. I think today's episode will resonate and hopefully help you get past the hump. Start pushing that rock up the hill. That sounds hard. We need a better metaphor than that. Like a more happy metaphor. Get that train to chugging to where your destination is.

Jeff Corrigan: 0:55

Absolutely. So yeah, this all, this all kind of kicked off in my brain, actually in the last couple of days, I brought this to Sheldon because this is something I've been experiencing more than I have in many, many years and over the last few months. It's just life's been a big whirlwind and as you guys know, I mean, everybody's going through something, right? And so over the last few months I was injured skiing. I injured my knee We have a 18 month old whose sleep patterns are all over the place If you ever have a toddler, you know what that's like or a baby Maybe you don't maybe your toddler slept like an angel. I don't know but so but ours is not so Great kid, but really struggles on the sleeping area at the moment But these are all phases. Meanwhile, first part of the year, whole family got sick. I was taking care of them for a while, then I got sick, and we were right down now for maybe three weeks. And so it's been a long You guys got it bad. Couple of months. It was brutal. It was the worst sickness I've had personally in at least 15 years. So, it was bad news. Anyway, but enough about that, right? Like, these are all The only reason I'm bringing this up It's because in that time, I really fell off. Is it fell off the wagon? Fell off the wagon. No, I, I really fell off and lost momentum with my exercise routines, with my fitness routines. And that is one area that when you get back into it, it's really obvious that you're no longer at the same level you were. Let's just say that. I, I won't go into all the details. I was telling Sheldon, like all my routines and how many I would reps I was doing and things. And then when I tried to get back into it, but I will say this where I started to do a few pushups the other day, I was like, Oh, I got to get back into my fitness routine. So I thought, you know, I got to start at the one of the simplest basics. Yeah. Start with the easiest thing. As you guys know, if you've ever watched any of our listen to any of our shows or seen our. Our course online for habit building if you want to get back into a habit or routine Start simple start with the smallest thing you can and so push ups are normally pretty easy for me After years of doing them and they weren't this time. I'll just say that it was it was a real struggle So I did not get to my normal set number. I was pretty short of it And still that day and the next day I was really sore. It was just, you know, it's something that normally doesn't even phase me in the mornings, but it's two days of sore. And I was just like, Oh, that was brutal. Like I knew I was like, wow, it's been a while since I've done pushups, obviously. And then just this morning I tried to get back into my other exercise routine and, you know, not to give you too many details, but I, I am more of a full workout though. Oh yeah. Like a more of a full workout. And just, it was, it was everything I, I could do to do even a portion of what I used to do. So, I will say this, guys. It's hard to get back into things. It's hard to stop and then start again. And it's, something that we often do to ourselves that is keeping us From achieving better results. And it's a lack of consistency is what will it get. It's more work for us and with less results. And so I think one of the things I wanted to bring from this is what it taught me this morning was, wow, like. It's so much easier to stay in shape than it is to get in shape. And that's also a quote from Will Smith, which I really liked, but I, now I experienced it firsthand and it's like, Oh man, he was right. It is way easier to stay in shape than to get in shape., but, but the thing was, that's got me through this mentally is that I've done it in the past. So I have the proof of concept there, like, okay, I know I've been here before, and I know I can get there again. In a few weeks, I'll be getting back to the same level of strength that I was before in my fitness. But if you've never been there before is what Sheldon and I were talking about a minute ago. If you've never been there before or if you're just starting for the first time and then you're starting and stopping, starting, stopping, starting, stopping and all you're ever feeling is the pain and you're never seeing the result, that is a really challenging and such a good example of why we struggle. To achieve things and or to get the results we're looking for in life. And Sheldon, where do you want to go with this? What's the next step? Yeah,

Sheldon Mills: 5:22

I think there's a couple of principles I think we should dive into just a little bit more. And first off, I think you're, you're being too hard on yourself. Right. Certain amount of empathy. To be learned from this. And that is that we all doesn't matter who you are. OK, Jeff, I've known Jeff for a long time and a large part of his identity is his ability to physically do stuff right. Like that's just part of what he loves doing. So it doesn't matter anybody, even if this, you know, there's an area in our life, be it physical or whatever. What is it is a huge part of your your psyche, who you are. Life happens. Right. Yeah. Life happens to all of us. And I don't think we should beat ourselves up too much when, when it does happen. Right. Legit reasons why these get just interrupted, disrupted. Right. And so that is part of life. Okay. So we all beat ourselves up for not being consistent. And what is it, John Acuff, the day after tomorrow, right? The day after perfect? Yeah, the day after, not the day after tomorrow, the day after perfect, right? Because it will have to That's

Jeff Corrigan: 6:36

a really scary

Sheldon Mills: 6:37

movie. Okay, go ahead. The day after perfect, or the two months after perfect, right?

Jeff Corrigan: 6:43

Yeah, if it's been a couple months, like it was with me. It's gonna happen,

Sheldon Mills: 6:48

but I'm saying like, that's, that's for someone who I consider you like very much on the high end of discipline and this and that, like, and it's a big part of your identity. Like this happened to you because it happens to everybody. Right? So. It's, it's not we beat it too much. We spend too much time beating ourselves up for these perceived failures for not getting it done and getting up early and doing everything on the checklist, right? Like that is part of life. So to be human is to err, right? So give yourself a little grace. That doesn't excuse us, right? I think then the other. You've already pointed out the other principle is that consistency. It's like the water pump Zig Ziglar you're talking about, right? It takes you have to pump furiously He's using the old time. Actually you you shared the example

Jeff Corrigan: 7:38

Tell them that yeah. No, so yeah Zig Ziglar used to talk about his he used to carry on to the stage his chrome handled pump, right? which is like water pumping and his whole idea with it was hey when you first trying to get the water out of The well, it takes a lot of effort. You're pumping vigorously. You're pumpering really hard. But then once the water starts to flow, once the momentum is there and the water is flowing, it does most of the work itself. And all you have to do is consistently push the pump every few seconds, right? You're like, okay. And it, but it's not hard anymore either. Like the pump becomes a lot easier to pump and the water starts flowing more vigorously. And that's. That's really how momentum works. That's how consistency works. It's like, and you, and when you're in it, you don't even realize it. Like when you pump in the pump and the water pump and the water's flowing like crazy, you're not thinking about it. Even you're just, you're just taking it for granted. Right. But the moment you let that water go down back into the well all the way. It becomes really obvious, right, like doing 20 push ups when you, when you when you thought that was going to be easy. And it's like, Oh man, that was not, that was not easy. And it takes a lot of effort to get going again. And if you haven't ever seen the water come up, you may not believe that it ever will. Yes. It's like, you may think I'm working hard and nothing's happened. I'm, I'm seeing no results. All I'm seeing is pain. This is hard. And, and so we stop and most of us live in that zone with, with most of the, the things we want to do. And that's why it's really kind of hard to break through that threshold because we keep trying hard and not seeing results. And so we stop trying hard. So I guess today's lesson is twofold, right? Is have some empathy for yourself because life happens. It really does. And it's, and it happens to everyone. Like there's no one is exempt. Everybody has stuff going on in their life. And, you know, even these last couple of months I was feeling sorry for myself, but really it's pretty minor by comparison to what most people are dealing with, I would say, right? And so, it did give me some, some sympathy, some empathy, whatever the word is. And it also helped me realize, like, it kind of humbled me to the fact of like, okay, but, I know I can get it. It did remind me that, okay, I believe in myself that I can get back there. Right? I can, I can do this again because I've been there. And so history, having some history with your actions, with your habits is really useful in starting again, because that belief in yourself is already there. Right? And so getting there is the first step And then being able to maintain that is the next step and it doesn't have to be well, I used the garden example with Sheldon earlier because I think it's also a good example of how this works. Like, imagine you did all the work of planting a garden. If you ever planted a garden, it takes a lot of effort, right, up front. But then after that, it doesn't take a ton of effort. All you need to do is water each day and you might have it set up on a timer where it's watering itself. Then you just go out and make sure that you're weeding on a consistent basis so they don't take over the garden. But if you miss weeding for a couple of weeks, if you've ever done a garden, you know what that's like.

Sheldon Mills: 10:48

You do it every day. Okay. We have a garden, right? And it's like, not a huge one, but big enough. Right. And you, you go out every day and it's like really easy on top of the weeds, but inevitably we have a vacation or something where a week or two goes by. And I swear, sometimes I never get on top of it again. Yeah, like it,

Jeff Corrigan: 11:10

it's almost, it's sometimes really hard to get ever back to where you want to be. Right? But imagine this, okay? Imagine more than just not weeding. Say you didn't water it for a couple of weeks and all the plants that you planted died and the weeds took over. So now, you gotta start from square one again. And that's how we're, that's how we're approaching most of our Goals that we're not getting paid for. Let's just say that, right? Like it's easier to stay consistent when someone's paying you, right? I would say even that can be challenging, but I think it's much easier when someone's paying you. So you've got like, whatever you're trying to accomplish, you got to treat it like your job, like, I, that sounds horrible or treat it like a fun job. At least

Sheldon Mills: 11:52

I would argue that's not even the pace, the accountability and money is a high accountable, what do you want to cook leverage tool or

Jeff Corrigan: 12:00

whatever. Yeah, absolutely. But that's a good point. Yeah, no, but so I think that's. It just became painfully aware, I became painfully aware of the fact that starting and stopping is really hard to do. Where if you stay consistent, it makes your whole life better and easier, and it also gives you better results. And so, like Sheldon said, don't be too hard on yourself, do whatever you can to build in that consistency. So go ahead, you have something? No, I just was

Sheldon Mills: 12:32

thinking of a couple things that You know, let's do a post mortem here of perhaps like what you could have done that would have made this this much simpler, right? Yeah. We talk in our course and one of the things we really love is upper and lower limits, right? A lower limit being you know, what's the minimum that you You can do and call it success to keep the habit going, right? Was it one example I loved from Darren Hardy, which he's like, I went to the gym, was there for like a few minutes and left. And the person that the, this was like giving me a bad time. And it was like, keeping the habit going was more important than the workout. And so the lower limit is like the littlest thing you can do, but dude, I love you know, eat the frog and atomic habits. And it was like one pushup, right? Okay. Jeff, if you'd have done one pushup a day, yeah. One. Even when you weren't feeling good, I bet you wouldn't be sore at all with your sets that you were doing.

Jeff Corrigan: 13:35

You're right. And that, you know, being really like humble here, I would say to I definitely, even with my knee and stuff like that, I use it as an excuse. Right. Yeah. But I, I could have done pull ups. I could have done some pushups. When I was really sick, you're right. I probably would have had to gone, gone down to like the absolute lower limit. Like, okay, I can do one pull up and one pushup and that's it. Right. But even that it's like brushing your teeth. Right. It's like. Even though you didn't do the whole set, you didn't, maybe you weren't building muscle, but you were maintaining at least a level that wouldn't keep, push it to be like, I'm starting from nothing. Right. I was literally, because then the last few days I'm starting from zero again. Yeah. I mean, obviously I'm a fairly fit person. So it's not like all my muscles gone immediately, but it's like, It felt like it was,

Sheldon Mills: 14:23

well, that's, that's just the physical side of it. I think more powerful and more important is the, momentum. It's the, it's the identity. It's the, the mind frame. It's the, if you'd have done it once one pushup a day, you'd have kept that consistency going. Yeah. Right. Well, that would have been way more powerful than even like the one, like the physicality of it. Right.

Jeff Corrigan: 14:49

You're absolutely right. And that's what Darren Hart is pointing out in that example. Right. He didn't actually do any exercise. He just went to the gym and and actually in all the episodes that we've had a guest on who was in psychology they all mentioned the mindset as being the most important thing. And that is so key in this consistency and keeping momentum in your habits. And your act daily actions is, is that mindset of I can, right, I can do this. And even if it's the smallest portion of what I can do, I can do this and that. That is something that I definitely struggled with over the last few, couple of months, was just like. Kind of that belief of like, can I even get around to doing this? Like, is this something I can still do? Right? And so I love that idea, Sheldon. I think that's a key, key part of this is mindset and implementation together are kind of like the superpower of consistency. Well,

Sheldon Mills: 15:46

I think it was a BJ Fogg, tiny habits. Right. And if anybody's in this situation, they're discouraged there. You know what I mean? It's like you beat yourself up too much. You've been wanting to do this. You've been meaning to do this, but you haven't done this for days, weeks, months, years, right? And I think what we have to do is like reframe it because there's a reason in our mind that this, this big hurdle, this mountain, this like, you know what I mean? I think you have to break it down into the tiniest steps and count that as success. I've been struggling with with my writing and I've honestly felt like pretty discouraged lately, right? But it through our discussion has dawned on me like I've been Struggling motivation to write in my journal and write these other things ideas like I want to write about right? But I've still struggled with motivation Because I haven't done it and it's dawning on me how many times have we talked about this Jeff? But I'm like, all right today I need to set myself a lower limit of like one paragraph like three sentences every single day before You know, it's better if I get if I do eat the frog early, right? Yes I just need to write three sentences like literally Yeah. And if that's all I do in a day, it's a win, right? Because that's all I need. Starting is, is the hardest. It's like starting the thing rolling takes a monumental effort, but once it's rolling. Yeah. If you're writing

Jeff Corrigan: 17:18

on your side,

Sheldon Mills: 17:18

momentum is on your side.

Jeff Corrigan: 17:21

Yeah. Yeah. It's like, there's very few things that can resist. Well, I mean, just look at nature. I mean, this is obviously an obvious example, but I feel like it fits really nicely. It's like. I mean as water cuts through a canyon, you know what I mean? Like a little drip at a time It's not like nothing can resist Consistent action eventually it breaks even if it's a tiny action. Yeah. Yeah, it wears like I mean, you know chinese water torture or whatever, right even the little drips In the, in the caves, stalactites, stalagmites, all those things are, are built over one small, tiny action at a time. And and that's really how you have to look at your habits initially. And then whatever you can add to it compounds, and I love that you say count it as a win because I think that's the most important thing is. Is getting that mindset of belief in yourself and starting to show, and we just talked about this earlier, the history of being able to do something. Okay, you, you reinforce that identity every time you take a step, no matter how big the step is. Like I wrote three sentences today, I'm a writer, right? But when you don't write at all. It's hard to be like, I'm a writer. It's hard to say I'm a writer if you're not writing. It's hard to say I'm a runner if you're not running. So this really kind of reinforces that identity, no matter how little of an amount you're able to, to do at the moment. So

Sheldon Mills: 18:57

it's made me realize how often we have these goals. And, and I think it's born out of like, Realism of what it's going to take. Does that make sense? Like I want to accomplish this and do this and be this and change that. And we know it's going to take like actual effort, right? But too often it becomes this mountain in our minds that even taking the first step seems daunting. Right. So I don't know how many times I've had to been like, okay, I don't have to finish it. I don't, you know, this, it's kept me from starting. And I've just told myself, it's like, I just have to start. It doesn't matter how far I get. It doesn't matter how much I get done. I just have to start. More often than not after if I just start I actually finish it because that was the hardest part It's getting going. Yeah, it's getting past that hurdle. You can do it. Yeah, go ahead

Jeff Corrigan: 19:52

I was just gonna say right along with that, right? We did a Magic Monday this week. We haven't done one in a couple of months. Three months? I don't know. It's been a while. You're talking

Sheldon Mills: 20:01

about our mo being a little I said it on

Jeff Corrigan: 20:04

Tuesday. Yes, yes. Good job. Which is even funnier, right? But, I did a Magic Monday, but what made it easier to get done was I had already written the first paragraph last week, right? When I had an inspirational moment, I'm like, Oh, this is what I'm going to write about. I honestly didn't know how to finish it at the time, and I just wrote the first paragraph. But today, I came to it with fresh eyes, and I was like, Oh, that's actually, because initially I was like, I don't really like this paragraph, but I came back to it today, and I liked it a lot more because I had something else to add. And it was like, Oh, okay, now it's easier, right? And so I was able to finish the thing and I posted it and send it out same day. So just like Sheldon said, getting started is often the hardest part. So anytime you can give yourself what do they call that? A not a shortcut, but start a portion of it. There's a word. There's a word for it. Shoot. What was it? Remember when you like stamped the card twice?

Sheldon Mills: 20:58

Oh, yes. Oh my God. I can't think of a word, but this is literally in our course. And I'm forgetting the word here. It's essentially

Jeff Corrigan: 21:04

like having two stamp cards on a 12 stamp card card, right? It's like already completed. Like Once, if you can get yourself a little starter, a little head start on things, now, that's why if you are wanting to write every day, just write down a few, like, write down one idea, like, even if it's three words per sentence the night before. Then when you wake up the next morning, you're gonna write, boom. Or when you finish writing the day before, write the first couple words of the next one you want to write. And I know that's, a lot of writers use that as a tool, but. Anyway, so what do we want to wrap this up and we've gone a little while. Yeah. Okay. We rambled we do

Sheldon Mills: 21:43

that. Sorry Yeah, I think I have a thought or two to wrap it up unless you do. No, go for it, please. Okay If there's anything from today, I just want people to feel that they are not alone in the thousands of times in your life when you felt discouraged because you didn't accomplish what you told yourself you were going to do, or you've started and stopped hundreds of times. Welcome to the human race. You know what I mean? Like, that's not, that's not an excuse, but. That's just one more way that you know, we hurt ourselves or do belief you let the adversary keep you down, right? Discourage you. And it helps me have empathy for other people, especially for the people who have never had the identity, right? You want to talk about the garden, this identity of being a runner of being fit. It's like, this is a, this is a mighty oak tree. In your garden, and you just having to go back and like Prune some branches and throw a little dung on the ground, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, but literally because it's such a part of like, like, you know, that you can get back to it. Right? You know it. And I have a lot of sympathy for people who are trying to create new identities. who are trying to rip out old identities that have been in their life for years, decades, because it is easier to go back to something that, Hey, you know, it's been a few months, but frankly, I've, I've struggled with this or done this for years. Right.

Jeff Corrigan: 23:23

You have historical proof to that. And to those people who are starting something new or have tried to start something new over and over and over again, and have never really broken the threshold of. Let's say I would say to those people, everyone has a first time, right? It's like everyone has a first marathon that has run a marathon. Everyone has a first book that has written a book. Everyone has a first business that has built a business, right? There's just because you haven't done it yet doesn't mean it won't happen. And. If you are going to get there, you have to have a first time, right? So it's like you will, and that's up to you to decide and build that identity into your life. And it may not be what you think it is. Your book might be a flop. You may have, you know, you may run the marathon and get the worst time you've gotten,

Sheldon Mills: 24:15

or

Jeff Corrigan: 24:16

you may whatever that, whatever the word, you may start a business and it doesn't work. But everyone has a first time and most of the time they have many times before they actually see good results.

Sheldon Mills: 24:29

I would argue that most of us have, it's almost like a pre decision decisions, right? We have many attempts to start and, and achieve the first time. If that makes sense. I feel, I feel encouragement for people who have like, they've never actually even done the first one. Right. Because I feel like we have these start and stops of like, it's like, maybe this is possible. Yeah. I think maybe even I could do it. You know what I mean? It's like this iteration of, of growing and fermenting in us until you finally get to the point where it's like, you can take action, right? Yes. Yeah. Consistency. My other thing I think to take away from today is to get back on that wagon, to push that stone, to get the pump water going break it down. Instead of, if you think about it, we all can actually, we usually don't take the time to, to identify this. But you can figure out what is the mountain that's holding me back. Why can't I even start, right? And then I would say that every single time, if you analyze it, you can break that down into something small and something simple that you could do within, you know, a minute or it's just, just take the first bite of eating that elephant. Yes. We all know that we all know it's an elephant, right?

Jeff Corrigan: 25:50

Yeah.

Sheldon Mills: 25:51

But just take one bite, right? Just one push up. Just have one, one more glass of water every morning. You know what I mean? Like whatever it is, break it down to its simplest form. And even if you can't like really get into it, start the habit of being consistent, even in tiny, tiny ways. And I promise like physically. Physically, it would have made a difference if you'd done even one a day, but mentally it's huge, right? Because you would have never lost that. And I guarantee you'd have been doing pushups like, you know what I mean? You'd never lost it anyway.

Jeff Corrigan: 26:28

Well, and in everything you do, the mental side is a huge percentage of. That battle, right? And it's like, whether it's physical, whether it's financial, whether it's relationships, relationships, like the mental side is so powerful. So, I agree with everything Sheldon just said, and I would guide you to one of our previous episodes on upper, lower limits to help you implement. Oh yeah. That's good. And we'll put it in the show notes because I honestly, off the top of my head, don't know what number it was. We're getting to that point now. This is number one 24 or something. I don't know. You guys are awesome. We really appreciate you listening to the show. And we should have said this at the beginning, but please, please, please, if you found anything valuable in this episode, share it with somebody. Cause that is our goal this year is to give you content that is valuable and impactful in your life. And if it is We hope that you'll share it with at least one person. And if you haven't joined our magic Monday newsletter yet, we're starting it again.

Sheldon Mills: 27:31

We are, we are pumping hard.

Jeff Corrigan: 27:35

We've just plowed the garden and we're starting over. So, you guys are awesome and we appreciate you spending time with us. Hopefully this was useful for you. Have a great day.

Sheldon Mills: 27:48

Sheldon, anything else you want to add? We love you. Don't get discouraged. Just get back up. That's all. Just get back up.

Jeff Corrigan: 27:55

It's never been a better time to start living your best life, guys. See you later.